Easy Season 1 Review

Easy (2016-)
Season 1 - 8 Episodes (2016)

Easy Season 1

Watch Easy on Netflix
Created by:  Joe Swanberg
Starring:  Michael Chernus, Kiersey Clemons, Malin Akerman, Orlando Bloom, Marc Maron, Jake Johnson, Dave Franco, Hannibal Buress
Rating: TV-MA 

Plot: 
This Netflix original comedy anthology set in Chicago focuses on an ensemble cast's relationships.

Verdict
I like the concept. Take relationships and explore different points of contention in unrelated half hour chunks. I thought the first few episodes revealed an insight and were really nice general character studies. Successive episodes lost that insight and became more indulgent. I became bored. The final episode just continued a previous episode, but didn't reveal a truth. The first half of the season is definitely worth watching, after that... it depends. I like this kind of show, it just didn't sustain itself throughout the season. The episodes are designed to make you think, though they become less effective towards the end of the season.
Watch it.

Review
These episodes take small moments and analyze them, the mindset people have, and how things can escalate. It's a study on human nature, communication, and reactions. This isn't something that could be done in a serialized show, and that makes this really neat.
The pervading theme is relationship, exploring ideas around that. I like the concept, and the simple stories get surprisingly deep if you explore it.
Episode two has a nice concept. There is no big twist, it just does it's thing which i like. Episode five has a great concept about relationships and art. Five is the best episode. Each episode features a custom title card as seen below.

Episode one opens on couples having a conversation about a study on how gender normative roles in marriages affect the relationship. This leads to one of the couples trying to spice up their marriage with multiple obstacles in the way. Life gets in the way, and while their impediments border on absurd, there is a lot of truth to it. It's a quaint insight into the life of a married couple, though that does severely limit the audience.

Episode two is how to become a vegan. A student falls for a passionate activist and vegan. She reshapes her life due to the infatuation. It's that moment when you fall for someone and you try to shape your interests to theirs. This flips where the student goes the other way and begins to distance herself because she can't conform. The kids the student babysits are the kids from the couple in the first episode. Eventually the couple reaches a middle ground.

An expectant father distills beer with his brohter but keeps it secret from his wife. This guy needs space, something to do outside of his life. He's married and about to have a kid so he wants a feeling of freedom. It's not bad that he feels that way, but he feels guilty and doesn't tell his wife because he thinks he should be embracing family, not distancing.

The dreaded house guest is the topic of episode four. I don't know why you would let your ex stay with you in the first place. It's a recipe for disaster. The episode captures the metaphor perfectly with the new couch the couple purchased. The ex/house guest has no respect for the couch. You should know this will only increase.
This is complicated further when the dude leaves his wife with her ex. This takes a dark turn when the girl and her ex have sex. She never consents, which makes this episode much darker and yet this isn't the focus. It's glaring and should have been avoided. This is a big troupe because the dude and his girl were trying to get pregnant and she was ready. Now the baby may not be his. We've seen that too many times, and it doesn't add to the story. We've seen that too many times, focus on the tension between the three of them.

Marc Maron is in episode five. His life provides fodder for his graphic novels. This turns people away and his success is waning.
This episode feels pulled from the headlines. When a girl takes pictures of him asleep for his art. He doesn't like that, even though it isn't dissimilar to his work. Maron is great casting as it's reality bleeding into fiction. While he's made she used him, it's also made him more famous which he doesn't regret.

Orlando Bloom and Malin Ackerman want to add spice to their marriage with the advent of online dating. It's the perils of online dating with a twist. They still have to feel out the other person and figure out what each side wants.Unfortunately it's the most indulgent episode as the bulk of it is a three way sex scene. It abandons the twist on online dating completely.

The guy in episode one does theater with the actress in this episode. The actress lives in the same apartment complex as the woman in episode two. A young and old actress try to figure out their place in life. This episode just feel lacking, like their should be more.

This is a continuation of episode three. The brothers both have different goals for the brewery. This episode felt like an outlier. While it's about a couple, siblings, it just didn't have the depth.